Vindicator

Chapter 34

Back in the palace, the Queen was headed down into the dungeon. She nodded her head to the various guards as she passed them, none daring to stop or question her.

The smell of unwashed bodies, fear and blood was thick in the dungeon air, so she breathed primarily through her mouth. Not needing to ask for directions, as she knew which section of the dungeon she'd find him in, she made her way to Russell's cell. When she stopped at the door and peered through the silver bars at the man, she was surprised by what she found.

Knowing that Russell had gone rogue, the Queen fully expected a half-feral, raging beast of a man to be angrily pacing the cell. With rogues, it wasn't uncommon for them to fling their bodies into the silver bars repeatedly until they lost consciousness, in an effort to break the bars down and win their freedom. Sometimes, if their minds weren't too far gone, they'd settle for snarling and insulting the empty air in hopes of getting someone's attention for a fight. And yet here, with a man of Alpha blood who had gone rogue, she found a very calm and collected individual sitting quietly on his tiny cot.

Upon hearing someone stop in front of his cell, the rogue looked up with a hopeful look in his red eyes. The hopeful look quickly died, though, when he recognized the she-wolf before him. "Your majesty" he croaked out gruffly as a greeting, his voice raspy from disuse.

"Russell" she greeted shortly.

"To what do I owe the honour of your presence?" He asked with thinly-veiled sarcasm.

"I wanted to ask you some questions" she replied vaguely.

He raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "Is that so? And why would you need a rogue Alpha to answer your questions, when you have an entire kingdom at your disposal?" He asked with a smirk, although he suspected the answer.

She gave him a smile that didn't reach her eyes, and crossed her arms. "I want you to tell me about your daughter" she answered, deciding not to let him know what she didn't know.

Russell leaned back against the wall and scowled. He was still bitter that his daughter was blessed, and he felt like he had chosen the wrong child. "What about her?" He growled.

"So she is his child!" Celeste said excitedly to Aless.

Aless kept her features neutral, though, not wanting to betray her own ignorance. "How did an Alpha have a daughter?" She decided to ask.

"I don't know, ask the Moon Goddess" he snapped.

"Biological child" Aless confirmed through the mindlink as her response to Celeste. To Russell, though, she said "And why did you treat her the way you did?"

The Queen didn't know exactly what had happened to the Spectre; however, she suspected mistreatment towards her, and definitely towards her mother. With that in mind, she felt such a question would lead to some answers she was after.

Russell grimaced at the question, shaking his head. "Because it was a shock and embarrassment to be an Alpha with a daughter. She was born first, did she tell you that? She is technically my Alpha heir, but a woman can't be an Alpha! I'd have been made the laughing stock. I'd have killed her right then and there, but her mother threatened to leave me...I'd have done it anyways, if her brother hadn't followed soon after. I couldn't have my only child be a female...But she really is blessed by the Moon Goddess" he said with a miserable laugh. "Her brother hid her from me in the womb, and her mother protected her after that. My own wolf wouldn't let me kill her, because our mate threatened to leave us if I did...Look how that turned out for us" he said, snarling the last sentence.

The Queen's eyes widened in surprise. She forgot that she was phishing for details, and blatantly asked "she's blessed by the Goddess? What does that mean, exactly? She mentioned it once before."

Russell gave the Queen an appraising look, for the first time realizing that he wasn't the only one who could answer some of her questions. He smiled at her, rising to his feet to approach the silver bars. "She's not willing to tell you the truth about anything, is she?" He guessed.

The Queen pursed her lips, realizing she'd given herself away. "Shit, now what?" She asked her wolf.

"He's the one in a cell...We should bargain" Celeste suggested.

Aless scrunched her nose up a bit, not liking the idea of bargaining with a prisoner. Regardless, she knew the Spectre and her mother wouldn't give her answers, so she had to try what she could. As such, she thought she'd give one last attempt at pretending she knew what was going on. "She has told me many things already, I just wanted your account..."

"Then you don't need to ask me about her" he said with a smile, a knowing glint in his eyes.

The Queen glared at him, knowing she'd been too obvious earlier; he knew he had her. "Fine, I want you to answer the questions for me that she will not answer herself" she admitted.

Russell threw his head back and laughed. Once he finished his outburst, he settled his eerie red eyes back on the Queen and smiled. "Let's make a deal then, shall we?"

The Queen's glare turned into a scowl as she considered her options. After a moment, she let out a big sigh. "What is it that you want?"